Skybound

They call it "Father" in Japan

The New Gods

The New Gods are mostly outsiders who ascended to godhood by establishing religions around themselves after the Old Gods left the world. Unlike the Old Gods, the New Gods are essentially just mortal beings who have attained incredible power, rather than being the personification of a fundamental law of the universe. Several of the New Gods’ various sects maintain that their deities have some other origin, but in modern times it is generally accepted that these are just superstitions spread by stubborn gods unwilling to step down from falsehoods that have won them a following.

Alra is the Lawful Good lord of the heavens, order, civilization, and light. Sometimes associated with the sun (a point of contention with the followers of the sun god Helios), he is widely worshiped throughout the Vilectine Empire. Alra is one of the most forthright deities concerning his origin, openly admitting that he was an angel of Celestia entrusted by Covenant to guide the upper planes and the prime material in Covenant’s absence. Alra’s followers believe strictly in the importance of the virtues of honesty and order, and the majority believe in doing so for the public benefit, though there are also sizable portions who are Lawful Neutral and believe primarily in the idea of order and civilization going on to exist at all rather than caring about how the meek feel about it.

Gwenivere is the Lawful Good goddess of justice. She was once a mortal queen in the Age of Ruining who fought to defend her people from the fiends of Dominus. When she fell in battle, Covenant raised her up as a demi-god and one of his most powerful servants. Now, after his departure, she considers herself to be his successor. She believes in the defense of the weak, honoring one’s duty to their family and country, and justice for all. Her old lands of Relique remain the seat of her knights, though they were long ago claimed by the Vilectine Empire. Relique was contiguous with Poten before the latter was blasted up into the sky during the battle between Dominus and Mithral.

Anir is the Neutral Good god of health and healing. His followers throughout the world are healers and those who wish to be healed. The root of Anir’s faith is in the land of Amazigh, which was long ago absorbed by the Rabacci and now forms a border between them and the Vilectines.

Tunaruz is the Chaotic Good goddess of love and compassion. She is Anir’s sister. Of all the New Gods, she is most like Mithral in her belief, though she is more concerned with the preservation of life and that it be blissful than in the creation of more of it. Her followers believe that everyone should try to make those around them happier, and that doing so will make you happier than all the riches in the world.

Liberis is the Chaotic Good god of freedom and the common man. He was himself a mortal, elevated to the status of demi-god by Alra when he was executed by the tyrant who ruled Majestic City. He was then the vanguard of a revolution that deposed the tyrant and installed a new emperor whose power was checked by an Imperial Senate. True to its name, this new nation would unite the Vilectine people and create an empire that would stretch across two continents. Liberis would later rebel again, leading the people of Elvadia, Dralvadia, and Illera in a rebellion against the Vilectine Empire and Alra. This occurred towards the end of the time when the New Gods had any real control over the nations they’d helped to found, and though Alra and Liberis were able to come to an agreement, the Vilectine Empire simply crushed the rebellion.

Helios is the Lawful Neutral god of the sun. His religion once dominated the culture of Akhet, a land now controlled by the Rabacci Empire. His followers tend to be split into two groups. The Church of Helios believes in the balance between night and day, darkness and light, Good and Evil, etc. etc. Though the followers of Helios often revile the goddess Luna as being a thief of light, they nonetheless claim that she must exist to give Helios meaning. They further believe that Helios will continue guiding the sun across the sky regardless of what his followers do, so long as they lend him enough worship to give him the power to perform his duties at all (critics of the church are quick to point out that the sun has been around since way before Helios had followers at all). Followers of this sect are usually Lawful Good, Neutral Good, or True Neutral. The other group, known as the Cult of Helios or the Way of the Burning Sun, believe in Helios as a wrathful and angry god who will bring drought to those who displease him or, if he is especially irate, rain down fire from the sky and devastate entire civilizations. They also believe that pleasing him by way of burnt offerings (especially sacrifice of sentients) will allow them to ascend higher in the cosmological hierarchy, which they believe begins with the sun and ends with the creatures that live in the dirt down below. They thus have a racial disdain for Dwarves, Kobolds, and others who dwell beneath the ground, viewing them as slave races. Naturally, this cult is Lawful Evil.

Luna is the Chaotic Neutral goddess of the moon, worshiped primarily in the Mios Islands, whose former kingdom her cults ultimately brought down altogether before they were all absorbed the Vilectine Empire. Believing in reckless abandon and trusting in the spirit of the moment, Luna has a large number of followers from across all three Chaotic alignments. Generally speaking, however, the Neutral and Evil ones will see the state of frenzied psychosis sometimes induced by their rituals (predictably called mania) as a source of entertainment, whereas the Chaotic Good followers tend to see it as a way of inspiring a battle-frenzy to help right wrongs, or maybe just have some really good sex. The constant amongst Luna’s followers is a hedonistic obsession with visceral, physical pleasure.

Tempest is the True Neutral god of the sea, who has a distributed set of worshipers amongst all three empires, though Chundao less than the others, and naturally sailors, fishers, pirates and the like are the majority of his worshipers. Temperamental but not devoid of a sense of justice, offerings to him are sometimes enough to calm a storm, while insults to him are often enough to cause one. Having ascended by seizing power from another god rather than by establishing a circle of worshipers, he has no particular doctrine except “worship me and I won’t wreck your ship.”

Thanatos is the Lawful Neutral god of death. Known as the Inevitable, his doctrine is founded in embracing the inevitability of death and the ultimate triumph of Vorpal without paying allegiance to it or seeking to bring it about. Death, according to Thanatos, is a valuable weapon but never an end in and of itself. Though they tend to be creepier than usual, there are a number of Lawful Good adherents to the church of Thanatos, seeing death as a weapon of last resort to remove the irredeemable from the earth. Thanatos is strictly opposed to the raising of undead, however, believing this is a blasphemous violation of the finality of death. They’re also heavily opposed to the use of resurrection magic except, of course, when Thanatos willingly yields up the dead to the realm of the living once more. These two stipulations have lost Thanatos a large number of followers amongst the Evil and Good alignments, respectively (though most people are Neutral anyway). Rabacci is hypothetically a theocratic nation devoted to his worship, but his influence over the nation has waned considerably since the Age of Candles.

The Jade Emperor is the Lawful Neutral god of civilization and order. Many claim that he is of the same origin as Alra, and certainly there are many similarities between the two. The Emperor was the patron of Chundao back when divine patronage mattered, and most of his worshipers are still from that region. Because the Jade Emperor believes in civilization of all kinds, he has the loyalty of rulers both just and tyrannical.

Houmei is the Lawful Neutral goddess of harvest. She has no particular beliefs, but for obvious reasons favors civilization over primitivity. She is generally a kind and caring deity, but when spurned her wrath can devastate entire communities (at least, those who do not have the protection of their own deities) as she blights harvests. Her faith begin in Tigai, but was quickly overrun by Chundao. She is now the wife of the Jade Emperor.

Caer is the True Neutral goddess of the wilds. She is a fierce and territorial goddess who surrendered her territory in the Wildlands to the Vilectine Empire only after Gwenivere personally subdued her and threatened to imprison her for eternity like the Old Gods if she would not yield. She supports the law of the wild: The strong survive and the weak are left behind. Nonetheless is opposed to pointless cruelty with all the ferocity that is standard for her.

Oracle is the True Neutral goddess of fate and prophecy. Her only temple is located at what is called “the center of the world” (which, being that the Prime is spherical, is as true for that particular location as anywhere else). Some argue that she is not a deity and, indeed, not even sentient, for anyone of any alignment may have spells granted by her and she offers up divinations to anyone who knows how to ask. Her temple is located within the land of Kyzarga, now in Rabacci Territory.

Masamune is the Lawful Neutral god of the forge and crafts. Unsurprisingly he has a close connection with the Dwarves. His followers dedicate their lives to the perfection of a craft, and his faith has spread to every land where artisans and craftsmen labor, which is to say, every land that is even slightly civilized. The origin of his faith, Shengora, was long ago absorbed by the Chundao Empire.

Magos is the True Neutral god of magic and knowledge. His followers are scholars and wizards of all sorts. There are great debates amongst the followers of Magos about the best way to pursue knowledge. Some claim that ethics are a hindrance, others that the support of the common people is a necessity to their continued existence (seeing as the majority of them are not powerful enough to live independently of society). Fundamentally, however, the faith of Magos is about the acquisition of more knowledge, and all else is in service to this. Magos was considered a successor to Marduk, and indeed it is rumored that he is an apprentice of Marduk who gained immortality. The faith of Magos began in Archae, now a border between the Vilectines and Rabacci, and Yuangai, a land which has now been taken by the Chundao Empire and which also borders the Rabacci.

Khan is the Lawful Evil god of tyranny and conquest. He believes in a merciless order and the subjugation of the weak before the strong, whether that strength be intellectual, physical, magical, or otherwise. His avatar Tsao Khan seized control of the land of Gulong and ravaged nearby lands before being defeated by the Chundao Empire, whereupon Khan was absorbed into their pantheon.

Sargas is the Neutral Evil god of war, power, and devastation. His followers are typically either career soldiers or war-mongers. Across the Evil spectrum he has many worshipers in all empires who seek to use war to advance their interests. His followers once led a brutal empire from Arrasia, which swallowed up Duria and Shalyton before an alliance of Rabacci and Akhet defeated them, and Sargas was absorbed into the Rabacci pantheon (followed by Helios of Akhet soon after).

Thain is the Neutral Evil god of necromancy and lies. His faith has crept into the dark corners of every land, but is increasingly less popular. He once ruled directly over the frozen land of Viktar, but a band of adventurers banished him back to the Realms of the Gods and the Vilectines soon after absorbed the lands for themselves. Thain believes that nothing is sacred, all things are permitted, and that undeath is the evolution of sapience into its perfect and eternal form. Many suspect that he is nothing more than an enormously powerful lich.

Bubos is the Neutral Evil god of pestilence and disease. He is almost always worshiped only out of fear, in the hope (often vain) that he will spare his worshipers at least the brunt of his wrath. Some twisted souls seek power in the commanding of disease, however, even at cost of being perpetually afflicted themselves. Bubos has no homeland and never had more than a cult following him, a cult which is despised and hunted by all three of the modern empires.

Lilith is the Neutral Evil goddess of deceit, seduction, treachery, and slavery. She believes in the rule of the cunning over those dumb enough to be easily bribed or manipulated into serving. Many are tempted into doing her bidding by offers of great power, but of course these often end up as slaves of her more worthy followers. Her original lands were in the Underdark, and she remains the only New God independent of other pantheons and firmly in control of her own independent nation…Though the Underdark’s power now pales in comparison to that of even one of the three empires, and her nation’s continued existence is due only to their being preoccupied with one another and the Sky.

Aresheth is the Chaotic Evil goddess of passion and lust. Her following is widespread throughout civilized lands, and while it is outlawed in most places, the law is typically willing to turn a blind eye to much of the rebellious youth embracing Aresheth as a protest religion. It is the organized cults that they seek to stamp out. Areseth’s religion began in Varsia before the Rabacci conquered it. It is now a border between the Rabacci and the Chundao.